Who are Stoke Space's decision-makers?
Stoke Space is led by Andy Lapsa, with leadership depth across technology, operations, commercialization, and company-building. Founder-led technical judgment still matters, but day-to-day buying decisions usually sit with the functional owners closest to the funded roadmap.
- CEO
- Andy Lapsa
- Key exec
- Tom Feldman
- Founded
- 2020
- Employees
- 125+
- HQ
- Kent, WA
- Notable
- Breakthrough Energy Ventures
- Andy LapsaCo-founder & CEOCo-founder since 2020Former Blue Origin BE-4 leader; drives Nova architecture and funding.
- Tom FeldmanCo-founder & CTOCo-founder since 2020Former Blue Origin propulsion engineer and technical leader.
- Devon PapandrewVice President / launch and operations leaderExecutive leadershipSupports launch-site and vehicle operations execution.
- Bill Gates / Breakthrough Energy VenturesMajor investor representativeSeries A lead investorBacks fully reusable launch as strategic climate/space infrastructure.
Who leads Stoke Space?
Andy Lapsa is Co-founder & CEO; Tom Feldman is Co-founder & CTO; Devon Papandrew is Vice President / launch and operations leader; Bill Gates / Breakthrough Energy Ventures is Major investor representative. The leadership profile is technical first, which is typical for fully reusable launch vehicles companies where product risk and execution risk are inseparable.
The CEO owns capital allocation and commercial direction, while technical leaders usually have veto power over systems, data, manufacturing, and engineering tools that touch the core product.
Who actually makes buying decisions at Stoke Space?
For small tools, the buyer is usually a functional leader in engineering, operations, finance, recruiting, facilities, or commercial teams. For systems touching regulated deployment, manufacturing, customer data, or physical operations, expect a broader committee that includes technical leadership, security, legal, finance, and procurement.
Founder or CEO involvement is most likely when a purchase changes the roadmap, affects strategic partners, adds operating risk, or commits the company to a large multi-year vendor relationship.
How is Stoke Space organized as it scales?
Stoke Space is moving from technical proof toward repeatable deployment, so the organization is likely separating research, product engineering, operations, manufacturing/project delivery, commercial, finance, and people teams.
That transition changes selling motion: early adopters may still be engineers, but budget authority increasingly sits with operating executives who need reliability, reporting, compliance, and predictable implementation.
As of June 2026.Sources:Stoke Space websiteWikipedia - Stoke Space
Stoke Space — frequently asked questions
